https://moviegique.com/ Moviegique review archive https://moviegique.com/reviews/digger/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/digger/ Thu, 29 Oct 2026 18:27:00 -0000 Clearly they were aiming for Dr. Strangelove and what they got was Birth of a Nation. https://moviegique.com/reviews/the-howling-1981/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/the-howling-1981/ Fri, 16 Oct 2026 01:15:00 -0000 The year of our Lord, 1981, saw no less than three major werewolf films: The disappointing Wolfen, based on the very good Whitley Streiber book; the John Landis classic, An American Werewolf in London; and the low-budget Avco Embassy feature, The Howling. Based on the book by... https://moviegique.com/reviews/hope/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/hope/ Fri, 16 Oct 2026 00:56:00 -0000 It's practically American in its love of weapons and horses. https://moviegique.com/reviews/buddy/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/buddy/ Fri, 16 Oct 2026 00:25:00 -0000 There are some nice twists-and-turns here and the whole experience is entertaining and also a little unsavory (like "Too Many Cooks"), and then Clint Howard shows up. https://moviegique.com/reviews/bad-apples/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/bad-apples/ Wed, 14 Oct 2026 21:02:00 -0000 If you can guess that this child is going to be a problem, you have a sense of how black comedy tends to scale. https://moviegique.com/reviews/the-incomer/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/the-incomer/ Wed, 07 Oct 2026 00:13:00 -0000 When Daniel comes to shore, they immediately clonk him and tie him up. https://moviegique.com/reviews/ninja-scroll-1993/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/ninja-scroll-1993/ Mon, 05 Oct 2026 23:27:00 -0000 The movie starts with a few vivisections and then moves seamlessly into sexual assault. https://moviegique.com/reviews/coyote-vs-acme/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/coyote-vs-acme/ Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:47:00 -0000 The buried, recovered and released Warner Bros film Coyote vs. Acme is good. The only questions that remain are: How good is it really? And how did this happen, that a movie studio turned out a good movie in 2022! (There's not really a question of how they managed to botch the... https://moviegique.com/reviews/resident-evil/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/resident-evil/ Sat, 26 Sep 2026 05:12:00 -0000 I would watch that movie again because I don't remember if the bears are lobbing grenades or wielding machine guns, but I'm worried they edited the bears out. https://moviegique.com/reviews/network-1978/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/network-1978/ Wed, 16 Sep 2026 23:51:00 -0000 This is black comedy. How black? None more black. https://moviegique.com/reviews/the-samurai-and-the-prisoner/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/the-samurai-and-the-prisoner/ Wed, 16 Sep 2026 23:21:00 -0000 Kiyoshi Kurosawa (no relation) is a Japanese filmmaker best known to the West as the creator of Pulse, from the aughts, when J-Horror was at its height, and every reasonably successful flick was being remade in America, usually poorly. I didn't see a lot of these, original or... https://moviegique.com/reviews/white-nights-1957/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/white-nights-1957/ Tue, 08 Sep 2026 18:10:00 -0000 Schell and Mastroianni are appealing, even as they seem to be hurtling toward their certain doom. https://moviegique.com/reviews/the-marching-band/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/the-marching-band/ Mon, 07 Sep 2026 21:54:00 -0000 There's a lot of failure here. But the failure doesn't win, because the people keep coming back stronger each time. https://moviegique.com/reviews/the-searchers/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/the-searchers/ Sat, 05 Sep 2026 21:24:00 -0000 Pickings have been slim. The Olivia Wilde-helmed The Invite has been hanging on for months, a comedy with a solid 7.5 or so on IMDB. I've thought about going to see it a half-dozen times and, frankly, it just gives me the creeps. There's a John Boorman documentary on how he... https://moviegique.com/reviews/the-rivals-of-amziah-king/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/the-rivals-of-amziah-king/ Fri, 04 Sep 2026 03:51:00 -0000 I can't recall the last time I saw a movie like The Rivals of Amziah King—a movie that starts out in a strong contention for my favorite of the year, then falls off a cliff. Peter Weir's The Mosquito Coast is that first one that comes to mind, when Harrison Ford's Ally Fox (I... https://moviegique.com/reviews/train-to-busan/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/train-to-busan/ Sat, 29 Aug 2026 00:00:00 -0000 I don't make the rules. I just make up random statement and claim they're rules. https://moviegique.com/reviews/the-third-man/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/the-third-man/ Thu, 27 Aug 2026 19:19:00 -0000 But this is why movie reviews are BS. You know who decides whether or not you're going to like a movie? You do. There is no other arbiter. Sometimes you make the choice consciously. Sometimes you make it unconsciously. https://moviegique.com/reviews/sheep-in-the-box/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/sheep-in-the-box/ Thu, 06 Aug 2026 21:37:00 -0000 A lot of plot getting in the way of the story, you might say, and probably the main reason for the low marks. https://moviegique.com/reviews/f-for-fake-1973/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/f-for-fake-1973/ Sat, 18 Jul 2026 23:50:00 -0000 If we rely on experts because they know more than we do, how do we know they're experts?Orson Welles asks us this tantalizing and startlingly contemporary question at the beginning of "F for Fake". In context, however, he is talking about the world of art, which I think we all... https://moviegique.com/reviews/the-fisher-king/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/the-fisher-king/ Sat, 18 Jul 2026 16:32:00 -0000 I like New York in June, how about you?For my money, one of the best runs for a director in movie history is Terry Gilliam's 1981 to 1995 stretch: Time Bandits (1981), "The Crimson Permanent Assurance" short which opens The Meaning of Life, followed by Brazil, The Adventures... https://moviegique.com/reviews/peter-asher-everywhere-man/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/peter-asher-everywhere-man/ Thu, 09 Jul 2026 05:41:00 -0000 The thing about pop culture is that it's ephemeral. https://moviegique.com/reviews/young-washington/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/young-washington/ Sun, 05 Jul 2026 19:59:00 -0000 The capable but proud leader finds humility in failure and learns the important thing is serving others. Sorry if that's trite: That's the way it plays out in the history books and it's a good lesson for everyone. https://moviegique.com/reviews/gift-of-fire/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/gift-of-fire/ Sun, 05 Jul 2026 02:13:00 -0000 I did have to remind the Boy that dropping an atom bomb on San Francisco in 1945 would've been bad. https://moviegique.com/reviews/python-hunt/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/python-hunt/ Sat, 04 Jul 2026 19:42:00 -0000 "Just point me at a python I can brain scramble! Humanely, of course." https://moviegique.com/reviews/coroner-to-the-stars/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/coroner-to-the-stars/ Wed, 01 Jul 2026 23:48:00 -0000 Thomas Noguchi is gonna come on real strong When they do that autopsy on you and find out that nothing was wrong https://moviegique.com/reviews/the-most-pro-america-movies-of-the-21st-century/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/the-most-pro-america-movies-of-the-21st-century/ Tue, 30 Jun 2026 21:10:00 -0000 While awful things happen every day, we are overly focused on them. The fact is, a country like this doesn't just happen: It exists because every day, ordinary people go out of their way to help others. Part of this is our tremendous affluence. But American hospitality goes back... https://moviegique.com/reviews/green-room-2015/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/green-room-2015/ Thu, 25 Jun 2026 03:11:00 -0000 Long before A24 became a household name—they are a household name, right?—I tried to talk The Boy into seeing this horror movie, Green Room, basically going in blind. He hemmed and hawed and it vanished. (It did not make its money back on initial release.)Anton Yelchin can't... https://moviegique.com/reviews/jinsei/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/jinsei/ Thu, 18 Jun 2026 04:02:00 -0000 If I told you that a movie made just over $30K at the box office, you'd think that was pretty bad, right?What if I mentioned that the budget for the movie was $10K?In another unusual film this year, we have the animated feature, Jinsei, made by Ryuya Suzuki—and we can use the... https://moviegique.com/reviews/backrooms/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/backrooms/ Mon, 08 Jun 2026 18:57:00 -0000 Why is there a tiny door with three doorknobs there? What is that menacing human-like shadow? Where'd that seagull come from? https://moviegique.com/reviews/tuner/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/tuner/ Sat, 06 Jun 2026 22:50:00 -0000 The editor on this movie acted like every second he shaved out of it got added to his own personal lifespan https://moviegique.com/reviews/tokyo-story/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/tokyo-story/ Sat, 06 Jun 2026 00:05:00 -0000 That may be another reason I really liked it: Just like Howard Hawks liked a movie when you could tell "Who the Devil made it" I like moves when you can tell "What the Devil country it's from." https://moviegique.com/reviews/obsession/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/obsession/ Sun, 31 May 2026 19:54:00 -0000 She makes Jessica Walter in Play Misty for Me look like a pussycat. https://moviegique.com/reviews/a-blind-bargain/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/a-blind-bargain/ Sat, 23 May 2026 12:39:46 -0000 When you go into a movie called A Blind Bargain starring Crispin Glover and which bills itself as a "reimagining" of a lost 1922 horror movie as a 1970 movie, well, what do you expect? No, seriously, what do you expect? I've seen the movie and I'm still not sure. Poster of the... https://moviegique.com/reviews/the-sheep-detectives/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/the-sheep-detectives/ Sat, 23 May 2026 11:21:48 -0000 I had the most amazing experience recently, and it took several months to occur. A few months ago, I saw a trailer for a movie called The Sheep Detectives. It was buried within the usual plethora of dull, repetitive, off-putting trailers and, at first glance seemed like a... https://moviegique.com/reviews/i-swear/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/i-swear/ Sat, 23 May 2026 10:59:51 -0000 The story of the disrupted award ceremony was funny before I saw the movie I Swear, but after having seen it? It's hilarious. This is a movie about a kid who comes down with Tourette's Syndrome at 13, in 1983. Now, look, Quincy had an episode on Tourette's in 1981, and I... https://moviegique.com/reviews/hokum/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/hokum/ Thu, 21 May 2026 22:40:35 -0000 Damian McCarthy is back! The director of my favorite horror of 2024 (Oddity) gives another masterclass in moody ghost storytelling set in the inherently spooky world of Ireland. As with Oddity, this is about how the supernatural world crosses over with the human world, and the... https://moviegique.com/reviews/lumiere-the-cinema/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/lumiere-the-cinema/ Thu, 21 May 2026 22:19:00 -0000 Rather embarrassingly for a moviegique, I had mistaken Lumière for Méliès, but in either case this was a must-see documentary. Georges Méliès was the special effects pioneer who is most famous for the image of The Man In The Moon with a rocket in his eye. The Lumière brothers... https://moviegique.com/reviews/a-magnificent-life/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/a-magnificent-life/ Thu, 21 May 2026 22:06:52 -0000 The films that we have an opportunity to see are highly curated in a number of ways which I am not going to pretend to fully understand. French films show up, sometimes in clusters, only for the country to vanish for a year or two cinematially speaking. In the past couple of... https://moviegique.com/reviews/over-your-dead-body/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/over-your-dead-body/ Thu, 21 May 2026 19:20:31 -0000 The Boy and I had a blast at this violent Jorma Taccone (MacGruber) black-comedy, but I couldn't help but notice this was the second romantic-dark-comedy in a row, after The Drama. Is Hollywood maybe inching its way back toward the perennial crowd-pleasing romcom genre, but... https://moviegique.com/reviews/the-drama/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/the-drama/ Sat, 02 May 2026 12:28:52 -0000 A24 doesn't just make horror films, but their films are often inflected with horror sensibilities. While The Drama looks like a kind of screwball romantic-comedy, it leans heavily enough into dark comedy to be psychological horror more than rom-com. Charlie (Robert Pattinson)... https://moviegique.com/reviews/the-french-connection-1971/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/the-french-connection-1971/ Fri, 01 May 2026 18:21:07 -0000 When watching five-time Oscar winner, The French Connection, which won for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Editing and Best Writing, one becomes convinced that 1971 must have been a pretty bad year for movies. This feeling plays into my prejudices about the whole... https://moviegique.com/reviews/the-lady-from-shanghai-1947/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/the-lady-from-shanghai-1947/ Fri, 01 May 2026 18:01:53 -0000 Orson Welles wasn't very good at making movies. I mean, sure, his cinematography is breathtaking, his sense of pacing thrilling, his ability to turn any plot into an entertaining story unparalleled. And, sure, he got great performances—often the greatest performances of... https://moviegique.com/reviews/sorcerer-1977/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/sorcerer-1977/ Fri, 01 May 2026 17:35:45 -0000 On the website-formerly-known-as-Twitter the other day, engagement bait was centered around the question "What director had the best three-movie streak?" Among the obvious answers (Lean, Hitch, Nolan, Scorsese) were those who referenced William Friedkin's three-fer: The French... https://moviegique.com/reviews/project-hail-mary/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/project-hail-mary/ Fri, 01 May 2026 17:01:07 -0000 I've been goofing on this film since it came out. I mean, look, it rocketed up the IMDB top 250 ahead of Jaws, Raging Bull, The Big Lebowski and Fargo, Citizen Kane and Rocky—this last film being relevant, as we'll see later. The author is Andy Weir, who gave us the abysmal... https://moviegique.com/reviews/two-prosecutors/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/two-prosecutors/ Mon, 27 Apr 2026 14:12:25 -0000 A young, freshly minted lawyer in the USSR in 1937 discovers that dissidents are being tortured by a corrupt NKVD, and seeks to use the ostensible rule of law to right an injustice. Knowing he can't trust the local police, he journeys off to Moscow to file a direct report with... https://moviegique.com/reviews/halloween-3-season-of-the-witch/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/halloween-3-season-of-the-witch/ Thu, 09 Apr 2026 18:07:03 -0000 Halloween: 3, Moviegoers: 0 I kid the third entry in the Halloween series. Because it's awful. But as it's one of Darcy The Mail Girl's favorite movies, and she got to program Friday night for The Drive-In Jamboree, we all watched it together with director Tommy Lee Wallace... https://moviegique.com/reviews/the-magnificent-ambersons-1942/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/the-magnificent-ambersons-1942/ Sat, 04 Apr 2026 11:25:00 -0000 Orson Welles' follow-up to Citizen Kane is the touching, tragic tale of an American family that rose to riches and prominence in the 19th century—only to lose it all in the wake of the burgeoning automobile industry. Well, sort of. A funny thing happened on the way to the... https://moviegique.com/reviews/playtime-1967/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/playtime-1967/ Fri, 20 Mar 2026 15:49:31 -0000 French auteur Jacques Tati made four films featuring his affably chaotic character, Monsieur Hulot, of which the second and third films are generally regarded as the best. The Boy and I had seen Mon Oncle a few weeks ago and enjoyed it greatly, and so rather enthusiastically... https://moviegique.com/reviews/good-luck-have-fun-dont-die/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/good-luck-have-fun-dont-die/ Mon, 02 Mar 2026 13:38:33 -0000 I was talking to a friend (who's been on a David Lean kick) about this movie, and she sighed and said "I hate...today." This isn't so much a reflection on the quality of Gore Verbinski's latest joint Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die so much as its character, and more the... https://moviegique.com/reviews/brief-encounter-1945/ https://moviegique.com/reviews/brief-encounter-1945/ Mon, 02 Mar 2026 13:30:44 -0000 David Lean directed Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), and Dr. Zhivago (1965) back-to-back, garnering 19 Oscars out of 34 nominations in those years. (By the current IMDB top 250, only the first two even appear on the list, with Dr. Zhivago apparently...